Amusement device



1960 'E. L. HUGHES EI'AL 2,957,273

AMUSEMENT DEVICE Filed Oct. 17, 1953 Elbert L. Hughes Walter M. Snyder I I 1NVENTOR$ 1 A 38 16 gbw Unitd States Patent G AMUSEMENT DEVICE Elbert L. Hughes, 32 James Drive, and Walter W. Snyder, 7 Wayne Lane, both of St. Charles, Mo.

Filed Oct. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 767,810

2 Claims. (Cl. 46-227) This invention relates to an amusement device and more particularly to a toy.

An object of the invention is to provide a toy which may be in the form of a doll, a stufied toy, toy robot, toy animal and others, and which has an electronic circuit with a gas tube that is adapted to fire and discharge a capacitor. The electronic circuit has a speaker selected from commercially available speakers of different types, for instance earphones or an electrostatic or permenent magnet speaker to receive and make audible the firing point in the circuit. The frequency of firing of the tube and discharging the condenser may be made to simulate heart beats.

A further object of the invention is to provide means in the toy by which the intermittent glow accompanying the firing of the tube, is used to simulate or produce sparkling in the eyes of the toy.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a typical toy constructed in accordance with the invention, parts being broken away in section to illustrate otherwise hidden internal detail.

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a wiring diagram of the circuit of the toy.

In the accompanying drawings there is a toy which diagrammatically represents a typical embodiment of the invention. Although a toy doll is illustrated it is to be clearly understood that the principles of the invention are applicable in connection with other types of stuffed or non-stufied toys such as those enumerated previously and many others. With this understood, doll 10 has head 14 with a cavity 16 behind the face 18 thereof. Eyes 20 are in face 18, and they are at least in part transparent or translucent since cavity 16 functions as a light chamber.

There is a circuit container 22, for instance a small, neat casing or a printed circuit panel, located elsewhere in the doll. The particular location of the circuit components is arbitrary and may be varied in accordance with manufacturing design. Conductive cable 24 is attached at one end to socket 26 located in cavity 16. A neon globe lamp 28 is in socket 26 This lamp is a tube that fires at approximately 85 volts DC. and may be connected by socket 26 or in any other manner to the conductors in cable 24. A typical tube for the circuit 30 (Figure 4) is a GE Manufacturing Company type NE-2. Other tubes, of course, may be substituted. The cable 24 is part of circuit 30. Starting from battery 32 the cable has conductor 34 attached to one side and attached to one of the terminals of the tube 28. The cable has ICC another conductor 36 attached to the other side of the battery 32, and there is a resistor 38 in conductor 36. Capacitor 40 is connected across conductors 34 and 36 at a point between resistor 38 and tube 28. Loud speaker 42 is attached in conductor 34 between condenser 40 and tube 28. All of this is contained in a small, neat casing, mechanically connected with a printed circuit panel or operatively arranged in some other way.

The power source is an approximately 90 volt battery or batteries that are series connected to add up to approximately 90 volts. Resistor 38, in one typical circuit 30, is a 22 megohm resistor. The resistor functions as a current limiter, limiting the electron flow to the tube 28 which, as indicated previously, is a neon globe lamp, and the capacitor 40. The resistor functioning with the capacitor establishes a time constant for the circuit regulating the time cycle of discharge in the tube 28.

Tube 28 fires at approximately volts and when it fires, it discharges the condenser or capacitor 40, allowing the discharge to flow through speaker 42. When the tube 28 fires it provides a definite flash. With the tube located on a medial line between eye 20, the eyes are given a sparkling appearance.

The speaker may be an approximately 2 K ohms earphone or loud speaker and this is sufi'icient to make the firing of the tube 28 audible to simulate a heart beat. Taken with the other values of the circuit, the capacitor would be a .05 microfarad capacitor and stores the charge until the firing point in tube 28 at which the capacitor is discharged. With reference to speaker 42, it may vary depending on the type of toy selected for the circuit of the invention. For use in cuddly toys, the earphone or speaker 42 is installed close to the surface of the toy so as to be audible without the use of any other equipment. For a doll the same location may be selected. But, with a doll it is contemplated that a simulated stethoscope may be used to further the pleasure of the child having the toy.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. An amusement device in the form of an animal figure defining a pair of eyes comprising an electric oscillator circuit having circuit components carried within said figure, said electric circuit including a battery having a limiting resistor serially connected thereto, a first circuit branch comprising a capacitor, a second circuit branch comprising a gas tube and a speaker connected in series, said first and second branches connected in parallel across said battery and limiting resistor, said battery having a voltage value greater than the firing voltage of said tube whereby said speaker will be periodically energized, said figure defining a normal heart area, said speaker being mounted within said figure adjacent to said heart area whereby said speaker may simulate a heartbeat.

2. An amusement device in the form of an animal figure defining a pair of eyes comprising an electric oscillator circuit having circuit components carried within said figure, said electric circuit including a battery having a limiting resistor serially connected thereto, a first circuit branch comprising a capacitor, a second circuit branch comprising a gas tube and a speaker connected in series, said first and second branches connected in parallel across said battery and limiting resistor, said battery having a yoltage value greater than the firing voltage of said tube whereby said speaker will be periodically energized, said eyes being transparent, said gas tube being mounted withirrsaid figure adjacent thereto whereby the. gasrtubetglow may be seen throughthe eyes, said figure defining a normal heart area, said speaker being mounted within said fignreadiacent to said heart area whereby said speaker may .simuhtea heartbeat. Y

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Ambash Sept. 8, 1914 Langer Nov. 17, 1931 Mason June 4, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain 1937 

